SCMP-Activist holds firm on assembl

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Monday  August 31  1998

Activist holds firm on assembly 

AGENCIES in Rangoon 
Recovering from a 13-day roadside stand-off against the military regime,
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told 500 well-wishers at her home that
her party would defy the Government and convene Parliament.

A source said it would be convened within a month.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has
been warned by the Government that attempting to convene Parliament -
elected in 1990 but never allowed to take power - will be illegal and
result in long prison terms and a banning of the party.

Tin Oo, an NLD vice-chairman, said yesterday that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had
received about 500 people on Saturday evening at her lakeside compound,
where she has been recovering from low blood pressure, weakness and other
ailments since ending her stand-off a week ago.

"Aung San Suu Kyi has told her party members the NLD will convene
Parliament by itself," Mr Tin Oo said. "She appealed to NLD members to
support and help realise the convening of the Parliament."

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, 53, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, spent 13
days in a van on a bridge outside Rangoon after the authorities prevented
her for the fourth time from travelling to meet supporters.

The protest coincided with the 10th anniversary of a nationwide uprising
against military rule which was crushed by troops, leaving an estimated
3,000 people dead.
The Government rejected an August 21 deadline set by the NLD to call the
Parliament. The party has said it will do so unilaterally.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr Tin Oo and NLD chairman Aung Shwe discussed with
leaders of ethnic minorities on Saturday the move to challenge the junta's
legitimacy by convening Parliament.

Yesterday Ms Aung San Suu Kyi met Bo Hau Aung, 89, one of her father's
comrades in Burma's independence struggle.